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Magic Johnson Fast Facts

By CNN

(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of entrepreneur, philanthropist and NBA Hall of Fame point guard Magic Johnson.

Personal

Birth date: August 14, 1959

Birth place: Lansing, Michigan

Birth name: Earvin Johnson Jr.

Father: Earvin Johnson Sr., an autoworker

Mother: Christine Johnson, a school custodian

Marriage: Earlitha “Cookie” (Kelly) Johnson (1991-present)

Children: with Cookie Johnson: Elisa and Earvin III “EJ”; with Melissa Mitchell: Andre

Education: Attended Michigan State University, 1977-1979

Other Facts

Johnson is 6’9” tall.

The rivalry with Larry Bird, another NBA superstar, began in college. They became friends while shooting a Converse shoe commercial in 1984. They served as the first co-recipients of the NBA’s lifetime achievement award in 2019.

Helped the Lakers win five NBA championships: 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.

Was the NBA Most Valuable Player three times: 1987, 1989 and 1990.

Has explained that the way he contracted HIV was through sexual encounters with multiple female partners in the 1980s.

He is chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises, which owns radio stations, movie theaters, magazines, real estate, a cable network, sports teams, and invests in corporate partnerships.

Johnson is also the chairman and CEO of the Magic Johnson Foundation, which was created to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS through awareness, prevention and education.

Timeline

1974 – Earns the nickname “Magic” after a game his sophomore year of high school, in which he scores 36 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists. Lansing State Journal sportswriter Fred Stabley Jr. is the first to call him Magic.

1975-1977 – Is named to the All-State team and leads his team to a state championship. He is heavily recruited by college basketball programs nationwide and chooses Michigan State University in East Lansing.

1978 – The Michigan State Spartans win the Big Ten Championship.

March 26, 1979 – MSU wins its first NCAA Championship. The Spartans defeat Bird and the Indiana State University Sycamores, 75-64. Johnson is named MVP.

1979 – Johnson leaves Michigan State to turn pro. He is the NBA first overall draft pick and is selected by the Los Angeles Lakers.

1980 – At 20 years old, Johnson is the youngest and the first rookie named the NBA Finals MVP. The Lakers win the series 4-2 over the Philadelphia 76ers.

1982 – Is named Finals MVP after a 4-2 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

1986 – UCLA hosts the first annual Midsummer Night’s Magic All-Star charity basketball game. Players include Bird, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan.

1987 – Is named Finals MVP after a 4-2 win over Bird and the Boston Celtics. He is also named League MVP.

1987 – Magic Johnson Enterprises is founded. Johnson is the chairman and CEO.

1988 – Johnson’s fifth NBA championship is the Lakers second championship win in two years, a 4-3 win over the Detroit Pistons.

November 7, 1991 – In a nationally televised press conference Johnson announces he is HIV positive and is retiring from the Lakers, effective immediately.

November 1991 – Establishes the Magic Johnson Foundation.

February 9, 1992 – Voted to the NBA All-Star game for the Western Conference by fans even though he had not played in a game that season. Is named MVP, with 25 points, three three-pointers, nine assists and five rebounds; the West defeats the East 153-113.

February 16, 1992 – The Lakers officially retire his number 32 jersey.

August 8, 1992 – The US Olympic basketball “Dream Team,” the first US Olympic team to include NBA players, wins the gold medal, beating Croatia 117-85 in the final game.

September 29, 1992 – Announces he will come out of retirement and play in the 1992-1993 season for the Lakers.

November 2, 1992 – Announces he is again retiring from basketball, due to the many NBA players voicing concern over possible health risks associated with such a high contact sport and Magic’s HIV status.

November 3, 1992 – His autobiography, “My Life,” is published.

March 23, 1993-April 24, 1994 – Head coach of the Lakers.

June 27, 1994 – Becomes 5% owner of the Lakers.

January 30, 1996 – Returns again to play for the Lakers. In his first game, the Lakers defeat the Golden State Warriors 128-118. NBA rules prohibit players from owning a team. Prior to his return, Johnson sells his interest in the team.

May 14, 1996 – Third, and final NBA retirement: “I am going out on my terms…”

October 1996 – Buys back the minority share of the team he sold to majority owner Jerry Buss earlier in the year.

1998-2010 – Partnership with Starbucks called Urban Coffee Opportunities “to build Starbucks stores in underserved neighborhoods.”

September 27, 2002 – Is inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bird introduces him.

November 4, 2009 – “When the Game Was Ours,” a book co-authored with Bird, is published.

March 6, 2010 – HBO debuts the documentary, “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals,” about the relationship between Johnson and Bird on and off the court.

October 2010 – Sells his shares of the Lakers.

March 2012 – Along with the Guggenheim Partners, Johnson wins a bidding war to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2.15 billion.

April 11-May 12, 2012 – The play “Magic/Bird,” the story of the rivalry and friendship of Johnson and Bird, runs on Broadway.

June 2012 – Launches a new cable television network, Aspire.

February 5, 2014 – The WNBA announces Johnson and a group of investors are purchasing franchise Los Angeles Sparks.

October 2014 – Announces that he is part-owner of the Major League Soccer team, the Los Angeles Football Club.

February 21, 2017 – Johnson is named as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, as part of a restructuring plan. He will step away from his role at ESPN, where he was on the show “NBA Countdown.”

April 9, 2019 – Announces he is quitting as the Laker’s president of basketball operations.

May 2020 – Johnson announces that EquiTrust Life Insurance Co., of which he owns a majority, is providing $100 million in capital to fund federal loans for minority and women business owners who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

March 6, 2022 – HBO debuts the scripted series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” with the first season focusing on the drafting of Johnson and the 1979-1980 season.

April 22, 2022 – “They Call Me Magic,” a documentary focusing on Johnson’s life and NBA career, debuts on Apple TV+.

July 20, 2023 – NFL owners vote to approve the sale of the Washington Commanders franchise to a group led by billionaire Josh Harris, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management. The Commanders’ new ownership group includes Johnson.

January 4, 2025 – Is awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

What college football and horse racing have in common: Greed wrecking a good thing

By CNN
(CNN) — On their face, they would seem as far apart on the sporting spectrum as tiddlywinks and shot put.On the one end sits college football, the billion-dollar industry that commands attention from August until January. On the other is horse racing, the niche sport that owns a five-week blip of the calendar.And yet, besieged by the same afflictions of greed, self-interest and a comical inability to work together, horse racing is doing its damndest to similarly mess up its very good thing.Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, announced Wednesday that the Preakness would be moving from its traditional-third-Saturday-in-May date to the fourth Sunday of the month.Taken alone, it seems like a good idea. For years, horsemen and horsewomen have argued that the traditional running of the Triple Crown’s second leg, a mere two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, no longer suited today’s equine athletes. Three of the last five Derby winners have bypassed the Baltimore-based race, putting the Triple Crown quest to rest before it even got started.Except, much like college sports, no single decision happens in a vacuum. The Preakness switch comes two days after Churchill Downs, Incorporated and the New York Racing Association announced a partnership to form a six-race thoroughbred racing series, which includes the Triple Crown’s third leg, the Belmont Stakes.The Belmont, per the announcement, is holding firm on its traditional run date on the first Saturday in June. Which means that rather than running within two weeks after the Derby to have a shot at the Triple Crown, horses now will need to run 13 days after the Preakness. Worse, in a sport that constantly preaches how it puts the safety of its animals first, horses will be asked to run the longest race (the Belmont at one-and-a-half miles) after the shortest period of recovery.It is not a switch; it’s a bait-and-switch that still leaves the Triple Crown in peril.“If you want to win the Triple Crown, we’ll see you in Baltimore,’’ Moore said in a Maryland-thumping news conference, conveniently bypassing the fact that if you want to win the Triple Crown, you also have to go to Louisville and Long Island.Moving the Preakness isn’t a bad idea. Creating a series isn’t a bad idea. Doing both without the two sides working together? It is preposterous.The Triple Crown is synonymous with horse racing, as familiar to casual fans as a mint julep or a big hat. Other than the Derby, Preakness and Belmont only one other race – the Breeders’ Cup – pulls in more than $100 million in bets each year.Dating back to 1919, when Sir Barton won all three races, and through 2018, when Justify became its last winner, it is revered for its difficulty and rarity as much as its history.In the course of my career, I have often been asked what the best event is I have covered. It’s tricky. I saw Christian Laettner hit the buzzer-beater against Kentucky and watched the US Olympic hockey team win gold in Milan. But I will say that never have I heard a roar like the one that followed American Pharoah from the final turn to well beyond the finish line in 2015 to break the 37-year Triple Crown hex. It was as cathartic as it was euphoric, a din that lasted well beyond the end of the race.Yet somehow it became a line item in all of this transacting, the greater good lost in the infighting between the three groups (Churchill tried to buy the Preakness’ intellectual property in April, a clear part of Moore’s very loud rebuke that “we cannot control our own future if we don’t own it”) as they jockeyed for position and precious broadcast deals.It is all straight from the college sports playbook, where backdoor meetings are all about self-preservation. Similarly operating without a commissioner to keep things on track and keep the greater good at the forefront, horse racing entities also solved only for themselves. Had they worked together NYRA, Churchill and the Maryland Jockey Club could have met the call to adjust the calendar in a way that kept their races intact and the Triple Crown viable.Instead, Churchill (the SEC) keeps its tradition and lines its pockets with additional revenue through the Derby and the series; NYRA (the Big Ten) gets four series races on its tracks and a share of the revenue pot; and Maryland (the ACC) gets to cling to its own small corner of the market.Lost in all of the self-interest is the only thing that horse racing has going for it.A Triple Crown can still happen, of course. Some have even argued that this new calendar will work out just fine.“I think it’s a great idea,’’ Bob Baffert told CNN Sports.The trainer, and winner of the last two Triple Crowns, believes that the new order keeps the difficulty of winning the Triple Crown alive but, with the space between races, incentivizes the Derby winner to run in the Preakness more.As for the ask of the Belmont, he contends that the “superhorses,’’ will try it and that winning two legs makes it harder to bypass the third, as opposed to a Derby winner who can easily skip out on the Preakness.Maybe he’s right, though recent history would indicate otherwise. And really, it all could have been fixed with just a little teamwork.Instead, horse racing officials decided to follow the college football route and think only of themselves.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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